The Revere hotel where Boston was considering putting up the homeless of Mass and Cass is suing the Hub, saying the city’s health commission stiffed it out of $645,000.
The suit comes from Sudguru Hotel, a limited-liability corporation that owns the Quality Inn at 100 Morris St. in Revere, and the company alleges that the Boston Public Health Commission “has relied on its status as a city agency to stonewall Sudguru and has failed to pay anything.”
Back in 2021, as Boston’s troubled Mass and Cass area of the South End was at its worst, with a thriving open-air drug trade and blocks-long tent city, one of the steps the city took was trying to rent out rooms in the Quality Inn to put up homeless in an effort to get people off of the streets. This ultimately never panned out, as the mayor of Revere and locals pushed back on the plan.
BPHC signed an agreement with the hotel to rent out all of its rooms, but it didn’t put anyone up there — and, according to the suit, didn’t pay.
“Although Sudguru performed its obligations under the Agreement by holding its rooms for BPHC, BPHC refused to make payment,” the suit states.
The BPHC, which is a quasi-independent city agency, didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday. The hotel’s attorney said the complaint speaks for itself.
The suit itself is five pages, specifically alleging breach of contract.
“Sudguru sent to BPHC its first invoice for the pro rata portion of September 2021 and for October 2021, in the amount of $255,060.00. Its second invoice was for the month of November 2021, for $196,200.00,” the company wrote in the suit. “Its third and last invoice was for the month of December 2021, for $202,740.00.”
The hotel company added, that the total amount in arrears is $654,000.00. The company is seeking an amount to be determined by a trial, including interest and any potential “further and additional relief” that the court wants to award it.
“BPHC did not contest or question the invoices during the months that Sudguru held the rooms for BPHC,” the company wrote, adding that it sent a notice of default last April. “BPHC has not paid anything nor has it explained any basis for its failure to either terminate the Agreement or make payment.”